Deacon Jonathan Goossen grew up in Manitoba, the son of a Mennonite Brethren pastor and Bible camp director couple. While studying at Bethany College, a Mennonite Bible college in Saskatchewan, he met Cindy Janz, and they were married in 1997. At that same time, they began a journey of reading and prayer together with a small group of family and friends that resulted in their 1999 chrismations at St. Vincent of Lerins Orthodox Church in Saskatoon. Dn. Jonathan was soon after tonsured a reader. After he completed BA and MA degrees in English literature at the University of Saskatchewan, they moved to Halifax in 2006 for Dn. Jonathan to study at Dalhousie University. There they began attending St. Vladimir Orthodox Church and also became regular visitors at the nearby Hermitage of the Annunciation. Dn. Jonathan’s time getting to know the monks there was deeply formative. He completed his PhD in 2011, taught for a year in the King’s College great books program, and then in 2012, they returned to Matushka Cindy’s home province for Dn. Jonathan to begin teaching English at Ambrose University in Calgary, where he is now Associate Professor. After many years of serving in the choir and at the chanter’s stand, he was ordained deacon in 2022. Dn. Jonathan and Matushka Cindy have four children (Jacob, Luke, Madeleine, and Mark) whom they have homeschooled and put to work developing the family acreage near Langdon.

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